The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-22
FASHIONS OF NOTE WRITING
interesting Points About an Interesting
Subject.

SODJecC.
shall be glad to say few words about
certain art of every day-that of note
writing-which, in these touch-and-go times
seems to be more neglected than is necessary.
True, it is not entirely overlooked in the
schools where our young people undergo
WHAT spopularly known as the finishing
process witness their painstaking epistles,
accepting or rejecting the Barmecide feasts
of Mesdames Smith and Jones, produced at
stated intervals for revision by the teachers.
But how few carry into society the ability
to acQuit themselves toward their cores
pondents, after the fashion of the poets fair
one:
81 know it, for she told me so
In phrase devinely nodded.
She writes a charming hand, and oh!
How sweetly all her notes are foldedr'
| One is often surprised to receive from
| people ''quick at verbal point and parry"
| ready of wit in general conversation, notes
of mere conventionality so heavily handled
as to suggest strain of unwonted mental
| labor. Others treat with regard the trihing
exactions of contemporaneous etiquette,
nothing in themselves, but inevitably pro-
| ducing in the mind of the recipient a feeling
of wonderment tempered with compassion.
Some are too familiar, some too stiff, almost
all are labored and self-concious In fact,
notes, like handShakes, are sad betrayers of
an mperfectly developed. social organiza-
| ton.
An affectation that cannot be too strongly
reprehended is that in vogue among some
| young ladies of writing horizontally across
the first page, vertically upon the second
and so on to the end. This maddening
practice, sometimes pursued through several
sheets in a fine slanting hand, is infallible
| in reducing the correspondent to bewilder-
ment if nothing worse. 1t is generally re-
ceived impression in America that good
| form exacts writing alternately on the first
and third pages of sheet of note paper and
| in the days of thin paper there would seem
to be some reason for the practice. But
among our social dictators, by whose laws
| American society lives and moves and has
] its being-the English upper classes-this is
l. condemned as suggesting business habits
adopted with a view to having copies made
| by letter press. The latest fad is to write
on the first and second pages only, repeating
the last word at the end of the first page in
| imitation of our forefathers' and signing, no
matter what your string Of baptisnal ap-
pellations this more particularly if you are
| a woman by single initial preceding your
surname As for instance:
Believe me, my dear Mrs. We're de We're, yours
| faithfully, j. JONES.
MONDAY, Ninetieth street.
To throw all possible light upon the ultra
fashionable billet of the day, / might further
| say that Miss J. Jones writes upon sheet of
medium sized parchment paper, or Irish linen
| of fair and creamy surface, folded once,
to fit a square envelope, and inscribed with
quill pen, causing her Chirography
strongly to resemble the early efforts of a
schoolboy with sharpened stick dipped in
the ink bottle. Elaborate monogramS have
well-nigh passed away. The house address,
| II 1ox l.
| blue, with sealing wax to match, is the
only coquetry now left to adorn the femin-
| inc epistle Scent is an abomination to the
nostrils of so many people that it were wise
to leave the sachet in the shop. Or, if an
odor is desired, left it be of faintest orris,
whispering of violets. As to the brief
nightmares of scarlet paper and other
| relegated to the oblivion they deserve.
Ragged edge paper comes into the house
| with the spring announcements of milliners
and tailor only. Vanished are violet inks,
pretty and fluent as they were. Simplicity
rules, at which, assuredly, no one will carp
So much for the outer shell of the notes of
good society. As to its contents, they vary
| like the spirits of mankind in their covering
of flesh. But there are certain little ways
of wording, say dinner invitation, that
harply changes, save for the names, dates
and addresses. If the dinner to be given is
! not one of ceremony (which in New York
| means banquet to. which guests are hidden
three weeks in ADVANCE the hostess most
often writes in the first person to her dear
| Mrs. Tompkins, hoping that ''you and Mr..
| Tompkins will give us the pleasure of your
company at dinner on Tuesday, the 25th, at
half after z O'clock" and signed herself
| Yours cordially M. SMITH"
To which Mrs. Tompkins, as promptly as
may be, after due consultation with her
leige, responds, perhaps, as follows:
Dear Mrs Smith" if on easy terms of friend
ship, otherwise MY Dear Mrs. Smith"
| MIR. Tompkins and have great pleasure in
| accepting your kind invitation to dinner on
| Tuesday, the 25th, at half after O'Clock.
| Yours cordially, L. ToMPKINs.
| 1t will be noted by the observer that both
Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Tompkins write their
dates in full, and that Mrs. Tompkins takes
care to repeat the date and hour of the pro-
I posed festivity in order that no misunder-
standing may arise.
Should, on the other hand, one apocryphal
Mrs. Tompkins chance to be a dweller in
state on the avenue of the elect or on one of
the equally favored streets leading there
unto, and accustomed TO regale her circle
| by a series of prandial entertainments,
| checking one set after another from her list
with systematic deliberation at intervals of
week throughout the season, she will
| ndUuTdllyuttNe upon JdDle d DO8
of largesauare cards engraved as follows,
leaving blanks for the insertion Of names
and dates:
| Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins request the pleasure of
| Mr.. and Mrs. Smiths company at dinner on
Tuesday. Jan. 25, at o'clock.
| 6G6 Fifth avenue
1t sometimes happens that in borrowing
| fashions from London we hit upon one so
eminently sensible that there can be no
question of the wisdom of adopting it: such
is the now universal habit of mailing invita-
lions and notes upon the thousand and one
pleasant puerilities of social life in busy
city. A few years ago people who were not
surprised by Mrs. Nickelby's humorous idea
| of impressing into service as genteel letter
carrier an omnibus driver with glazed hat
and wart on his nose, who would look
/ like a gentleman's servant, where often put
to it to forward speedily and safely u num-
Der of cards at once. District messenger
boys, hailed with rapture upon their intro
duction soon proved to be expensive and
unreliable in such case.
More than one Mortified dame has had her
notes and envelopes returned TO her by some
passerby who has discovered them east
away in secluded nook or convenient drain.
Many another he's been compelled to meet
dark looks and lowering glances from some
acquaintance to whom she has duly for
warded invitations which never reached
their destinations; their failures remaining
! 40 ,,ravyAlaipaJ St1ab ayYpfiar aae